Jason Noll added his name to the Barnett Dirt Modified winner’s list in their first half mile track race of the year Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway. Robert King, Jr. added to his points lead with a win in the AMA Modlites and JJ Lemoine scored his third win of the season in the dwarf car feature and added to his points lead. Rookie driver Garrett Funk won his third straight SCRA sport modified feature and took over the points lead as veteran driver Chris Rhein, points leader heading into the race, could do no better than eighth in the feature.
Terry Belcher, Jr. shot away from the field at the green flag for the dirt modified feature and pulled away to a three second advantage over Noll. His car failed him after leading five laps as Junior’s hard luck continued. He has not finished a feature race this year. Behind Noll at the checkered flag were Chuck Kuehl and points leader Anthony Madrid. Rene Madrid drove a steady race with a drive from his fifth row starting berth to edge Tony Steele for fourth. Rounding out the top ten were Kenny Wyman, Robert King, Jr., 14 year old Tim Ward who was making his first start on the half mile track, two time champion Ricky Thornton and Chris McCurdy, Jr.
Heat races went to Tom Lucas who beat Noll, Anthony Madrid, Belcher, Jr. and Jay Foster. Ricky Thornton, Jr. won the second heat over Kuehl, Terry Belcher, Sr., McCurdy and Wyman.
King dueled with his team mate Clayton Echols and with his father-in-lap Terry Belcher for the entire distance in the modlites and Echols barely edging Belcher for runner-up honors. Jim Chapp came out of the fifth row to finish fourth ahead of William McDowell whose brother is in his first year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Behind the top five were Brain King, Brandon Echols, Danny Torgerson, Dan Schuck and Tom Nichols.
King won the first heat over Torgerson and Clayton Echols and Belcher topped Justin Randall and Gary Mooney in the second heat.
LeMoine came out of the fifth row, took the lead on the 12th lap, and pulled away in the remaining three laps with Steve Davis second ahead of early leader Randy Johnson. Chad Stewart was fourth and Brian Stehr, ranked second in points, was fifth. The rest of the top ten, in order, were Kelly Jenkins, Chris Snyder, Todd Bennett, Eddie O’Neill and Rat Stafford. ]
Rookie driver Troy Wilkinson beat Ryan Irish and Stafford in the first heat; Jenkins topped LeMoine and Davis in the second six lapper and Stehr was better than Johnson and Stewart in the final preliminary race.
Garrett diced with Jim Herzner, Jr. before taking the lead in the sport mod main event on the fourth lap. Once out front the 14 year old made it look easy as he finished a half lap ahead of Herzner. Keith Krenklis finished third.
A false start due to the pole car jumping the green flag put Funk on the pole but Herzner beat him through the first turn and led the first three laps. Funk, driving like a seasoned veteran found the fastest way around the one third mile track and made a low line pass pay off with the lead on lap #4. Then he played a game of "get gone". Behind the top three were trophy dash and heat race winner Kerry Campbell and Rick Stephenson. Rounding out the top ten were Mark Sember, Robin Boomgaarden, Rhein, Bud Hamblen and Steve Bender.
Behind Campbell in the first heat were Funk and Sember. Bender beat Herzner and Hamblen in the second heat.
| BRA Dirt Modified |
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| Main Event: (15 laps) 1. Jason Noll 2. Chuck Kuehl 3. Anthony Madrid 4. Rene Madrid 5. Tony Steele 6. Kenny Wyman 7. Robert King, Jr. 8. Tim Ward 9. Ricky Thornton 10. Chris McCurdy, Jr. 11. Brian Zalenka 12. Tom Lucas 13. Ricky Thornton, Jr. 14. Jay Foster 15. Terry Belcher, Jr. 16. Terry Belcher Lap leaders: laps 1-5 Belcher, Jr., laps 6-15 Noll 1st Heat: (6 laps) 1. Lucas 2. Noll 3. A. Madrid 4. Belcher, Jr. 5. Foster 6. King, Jr. 7. Steele 8. Zalenka (time-2:20.52) 2nd Heat: (6 laps) 1. Thornton, Jr. 2. Kuehl 3. Belcher 4. McCurdy, Jr. 5. Wyman 6. R. Madrid 7. Ward 8. Thornton (time-2:21.06) |
| AMA Modlites |
| Main Event: (10 laps) 1. Robert King, Jr. 2. Clayton Echols 3. Terry Belcher 4. Jim Chapp 5. William McDowell 6. Brian King 7. Brandon Echols 8. Danny Torgerson 9. Dan Schuck 10. Tom Nichols 11. Leland Conrad 12. Greg Loper 13. Bud Grossenbacher 14. Brad Hallin 15. Steve Moriarity 16. Doug Lake 17. Scott Gann 18. Gary Mooney 19. Justin Randall 20. Troy Korkosz 21. Chris Shafer 22. Tom Graham Lap leaders: lap 1 Mooney, lap 2 C. Echols, laps 3-10 King, Jr. 1st Heat: (8 laps) 1. King, Jr. 2. Torgerson 3. C. Echols 4. Shafer 5. Scott Gann 6. Moriarity 7. Gann 8. Loper 9. Nichols 10. Schuck 11. Conrad (time-2:33.75) 2nd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Belcher 2. Randall 3. Mooney 4. B. King 5. Chapp 6. Hallin 7. McDowell 8. Graham 9. Grossenbacher 10. Lake 11. Korkosz (no time) |
| Desert Dwarf Cars |
| Main Event: (15 laps) 1. JJ LeMoine 2. Steve Davis 3. Randy Johnson 4. Chad Stewart 5. Brian Stehr 6. Kelly Jenkins 7. Chris Snyder 8. Todd Bennett 9. Eddie O’Neill 10. Rat Stafford 11. Denny Dowty 12. Robert Ostrom 13. Troy Wilkinson 14. Jerry Hartnett 15. Eric Muse 16. Brian Swartz 17. Jeffrey Schoeb 18. Steve Kapaun 19. Jesse Patterson 20. Taylor Cuzik 21. Babara Stafford (no time) 1st Heat:: (6 laps) 1. Wilkinson 2. Ryan Irish 3. R. Stafford 4. Bennett 5. O’Neill 6. B. Stafford 7. Swartz 8. Snyder (no time) 2nd Heat: (6 laps) 1. Jenkins 2. LeMoine 3. Davis 4. Cuzick 5. Ostrom 6. Muse 7. Kapaun (time-2:01.18) 3rd Heat: (6 laps) 1. Stehr 2. Johnson 3. Stewart 4. Schoeb 5. Hartnett 6. Dowty 7. Patterson (time-1:59.28) Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. Schoeb 2. O’Neill 3. Kapaun 4. B. Stafford 5. Swartz 6. Cuzick (no time) |
| SCRA Sport Modifieds |
| Main Event: (15 Laps) 1. Garrett 2. Jim Herzner, Jr. 3. Keith Krenklis 4. Kerry Campbell 5. Rick Stephenson 6. Mark Sember 7. Robin Boomgaarden 8. Chris Rhein 9. Bud Hamblen 10. Steve Bender 11. Justin Thornton (no time) 1st Heat: 6 laps) 1. Campbell 2. Funk 3. Sember 4. Boomgaarden 5. Krenklis 6. Thornton (time-1:53.80) 2nd Heat: 1. Bender 2. Herzner, Jr. 3. Hamblen 4. Stephenson 5. Rhein (time-1:51.11) Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. Campbell 2. Funk 3. Rhein 4. Krenklis (1:22.34) |
